Thursday, 6 February 2020 - South Africa
By studying Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), scientists can trace all modern humans to a single common female ancestor who lived about 200,000 years ago, and she’s from Africa. The mtDNA is transmitted only from mothers to their children, and it passes almost unchanged from generation to generation. The slight changes that do occur result from mutations that geneticists think have been developing at a constant rate through time. By measuring the amount of change in mtDNA in modern populations, it is possible to trace human genealogy over thousands of generations, back to a common female ancestor of all living humans.
When scientists tested certain African groups, particularly the Khoisan people in Southern Africa (bushmen), they have found more variety in their mtDNA than in populations living outside Africa. This means that those Africans have been around for more generations than any other people, according to geneticists. This correlates with fossil discoveries - the oldest fossil evidence of modern humans thus far have been found in Ethiopia and South Africa. This supports the “Out of Africa” theory, which argues that humans originated in Africa and then spread to populate the rest of the world.
As I walked out of the museum, I read this interesting quote on one of the stone tablets lining the walkway: “Africa is the birthplace of humankind. This is where our collective umbilical cord lies buried.” I really like this quote 😁.
Then, although this was not in my plan, I went to the Lion and Safari Park. I had to pay Arthur a little extra for this but certainly cheaper than if I had arranged it with the hotel so I was happy with this. Here I got to touch 4 simply adorable lion cubs which were about 5 months old!!! 😍😍😍 their fur is actually quite rough. Then a short safari ride where I saw many, many more lions, African wild dogs (they have very big ears and appear spotted - they are commonly mistaken for hyenas but are proper canines whereas the closest relative of the hyena is (I never would have guessed) the mongoose!), a giraffe named George and some cheetahs.
Although these animals are wild, they were born and bred in the park itself so they are not really WILD wild as in they don’t need to hunt for their own food. Some of the lions here are white, but they are not albino, just whitish fur because they inherited a recessive gene. The guide informed me that in the wild they would be rejected by the pack as they view white fur as a defect. So strange. In the world of mankind it is the other way around 🙃.
Then to the Mall of Africa (apparently the biggest mall in Africa) to look for some make-up for Amma which cannot be found anywhere in Malaysia nor can it be shipped to Malaysia 🙄. Luckily I found it. It is now the end of summer heading into autumn here in Johannesburg; the weather is actually quite nice about 27-28 degrees Celsius and much colder at night. The government shuts down the electricity from one town to another to save money. As it was quite late when we were driving back to the hotel, we drove in darkness: there were no streetlights and no lights even in the mall!
Before going to the hotel I bought dinner (Nando’s Hotpot which cannot be found in Malaysia I know not why) and then back to the hotel where I said goodbye to Arthur, eat, shower and pack with a terribly heavy heart because tomorrow I leave Africa although my heart is still here 😭.
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